Afghan and Pakistani presidents Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf met in Ankara [April 30] to publicly bury the hatchet under the supervision of Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Karzai and Musharraf have engaged in a war of words in recent months, with Karzai accusing Islamabad of allowing the infiltration of Taliban militants into Afghanistan over its porous border, and with Musharraf suggesting that Kabul was "soft" on terror. [Reuters, April 28] Meanwhile, US officials claimed to have killed hundreds of Taliban fighters [in clashes and airstrikes] in western Afghanistan. [AP, April 30] Thousands of Afghans marched in Herat [April 30] to protest against the killing of civilians by US and NATO forces. The demonstration followed similar protests over the weekend in Jalalabad. [Reuters, April 30] And a suicide bomber struck a political rally in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar [April 28] killing 28 people and narrowly missing Pakistan's interior minister. [NYT, April 29].

From Madrid11.net Security Briefs, April 30

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